


First Time Out

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Brainwashing, Cults, Forced Marriage, Gen, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 16:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15319413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	First Time Out

“Jack, what are you looking at?” Hotch laughed. His son was always a ball full of energy, so seeing him frozen in place staring randomly across the park was quite out of the ordinary. With no answer, he walked over to his son and crouched down, grazing his cheek with his finger as he glanced in the same direction.

He was pretty sure he knew what Jack was looking at - or rather who. Across the park was a young girl, older teenager probably. She was all alone and was dressed very different than most. She was wearing a pastel pink prairie dress that went down the floor; it was met with very dirty, black rubber shoes. Nothing special in the slightest. “Are you looking at her?” He asked.

The little boy nodded and turned to his father. “Yea. Why is she dressed like that?” When Hotch looked toward his son again, he noticed he was starting to shiver - but it wasn’t cold out. He had a bad feeling. Maybe Jack would be a profiler because Hotch suspected something was wrong the second he caught a glimpse of her.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Can you go play while I ask Aunt Jessica to keep an eye on you?”

Jack nodded and immediately ran toward the playground. Oh to be a child again. Before Hotch could even walk toward where Jessica was sitting on a bench, his son had a smile on his face. If only life could be that simple. “Hey, Jessica. You mind keeping an eye on Jack for a minute?”

“Sure,” she said, glancing up from her book. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure. There’s someone across the park. A young girl and she looks very out of place. I want to go check on her.” Jessica told him to take his time and that she had Jack covered.

When he crossed the grass, the sun obstructing his view ever so slightly, he overheard the endings of a conversation between the girl and a man that had just recently appeared. “Has anyone told you how beautiful you are?” The man asked.

“No, Sir. I’m not allowed out much and father doesn’t let us keep mirrors in the house thus we fall victim to vanity.” Okay, that was immediately off-putting. As Hotch closed in, the sun was blocked by a tree and he finally saw the girl’s face up close. It was Y/N Y/L/N. She’d aged about seven years. Her hair was longer and her skin more sallow and sunken, but there was no mistaking it. She’d gone missing seven years ago during one of his first cases at the Bureau. 

Pulling out his badge, he flipped it quickly in the man’s direction and watched him scatter. Y/N nearly ran, but he spoke softly. “My name is Aaron Hotchner. I’m a police officer.” It probably sounded less scary than FBI Agent. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You can help me?” She asked. Her eyes glossed over with tears the moment he nodded. “Can I see your badge?”

He handed it over and watched her examine it closely before bursting into tears. “Please, don’t let them find me.”

“Who?”

“My…my family. I-I-I can’t go back there.”

“You won’t have to. I promise,” he said, making direct eye contact. “I’m going to call some of the people I work with and we’re all going to make sure you never go back there.” He caught Jessica’s eye and gave a wave. “Will you come over this way? By my son and sister-in-law? I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

Despite the badge, she still seemed reluctant to follow him, but she eventually did. 

—–

After dropping Jessica and Jack off at his house, he met the team and Y/N, who’d later identified herself as Elizabeth Higgins, back at the office. “Please, don’t make me go back! Don’t make me!” He heard her screaming the moment the elevator door opened. 

Immediately, he ran and pushed past other agents, excusing himself along the way. “It’s okay,” he said as he crouched down in front of her. “Y/N, it’s okay. No one is going to hurt you and you are never going back there. I promised, didn’t I?”

She calmed a bit upon seeing a familiar face. The cold walls of the Bureau plus all the new faces asking her questions she didn’t understand was probably too overwhelming for her. “Why do you keep calling me that? My name is Elizabeth.”

He shook his head softly. “It’s not. The people you called your family aren’t. They took you from your family.”

“No, no…that can’t be. Father’s told me all about the day I was born. Why would he lie to me?” She backed into the corner of the room and started shaking.

Hotch didn’t move but maintained eye contact. “What made you come to the park?” He asked.

“I saw my mother and father with shovels last night, and I didn’t see my little sister this morning. I got scared. I think…I think they hurt her.” Though she was a teenager, she looked so small as she crumbled down to the floor in a heap of tears. “Did they kill my sister? Was she even-?” Her scream was ear piercing.

The last thing he wanted to do was comfort her through any form of touch and have it make things worse so he sat down across from her and spoke softly as she cried, promising that he’d never send her back and he’d make sure that her mother and father paid for what they did to the little girl she called her sister. 

After she stopped crying, Emily brought in a pair of pants and a sweatshirt for her, something other than the tattered, dirt-stained, thrown together dress she’d probably been wearing for some time. “I can’t wear this. They’ll get mad. They’ll…”

“No one is going to do anything to you anymore,” Emily said quietly as she glanced toward Hotch. “My friend here is a very good Agent and he’s a man of his word. You will never have to go near them again.”

It took a little coaxing from Emily to get her to change, but she did and they offered her some water and something to eat, considering it looked like she hadn’t eaten well in ages. “Can you tell us about the people you were living with? What they were like? How many there were? What it was like where you lived?” She asked when they were finally in a room.

Normally, they’d interview someone in the interrogation room but it was cold in there and none of them wanted to subject her to that. Instead, they sat in an old office that had a bunch of chairs, some warmer paint and enough room for Y/N, Emily, Hotch and Spencer; the rest waited outside. “Well, I lived with my father, my mother and my sisters’ mother. My father also had a couple of other wives. I was meant to be one of them,” she whispered. “They told me last night and I panicked. I went to my little sister and cried about and I think she went to our parents and that’s why she’d gone.” Her lip started to quiver as she continued. “From when I was little, they told me I’d get married when I got older and they would pick who I married, but I didn’t think it was going to be him. They said it’s not wrong, but I think it is! It’s wrong and I didn’t want to do it so when they told me to go get some groceries I left and snuck away.”

“It is wrong,” Hotch said. “That’s not supposed to happen between relatives. You fall in love and choose for yourself.”

“That’s not what they said.”

“I know,” he replied. “Did you live in a house?”

“Yes. It was my father, mother, and three other women, plus my sister. Both of the new wives are pregnant too. But there are a ton of other houses where I live and lots of other kids! Can you get them out?” She queried. “I don’t want any of the other kids to go through what I have. It’s not okay. It’s not! It’s not! It’s not!”

Hotch got off the chair and leaned in front of her. “You’re right,” he said quickly. “It’s not okay and we’re going to help them, but I need you to tell us where you lived.”

“I don’t know!” She said, her voice shaking. “And if I can’t tell you then you can’t get there and then other people are going to get hurt and it’s all going to be because of me!” 

“No, no, no,” Hotch assured her. “No, it’s not you’re fault. You may not be able to tell us, but can you remember the way? If we drive you in a car?”

Y/N looked horrified at the idea of having to go anywhere near that place, but she said yes. “I think so. I don’t have to go in, do I?”

“No, we won’t even be going in immediately,” Emily interjected. “Once you show us then we can call backup and get everyone out safely.”

“And then we can punish all the bad people that’ve hurt you,” Spencer finished.

With a little more assuring, Hotch took Y/N, along with Spencer and Emily into a car. Y/N couldn’t even remember street names, but she did point out landmarks and told them where to turn. It was nearly a 30-minute drive. Hotch was horrified. She had to have run miles to get to someplace she felt safe. “There.” It was almost inaudible, but all the team had to do was follow the pointed finger and the far off gaze. “Passed the phone tower. There’s a wire fence surrounding it.” 

For a moment, she said nothing. Hotch pulled his phone out of his pocket and called in backup. “Chief Strauss? Please send as many units as you can.”

The phone slipped quietly back into his pocket and instantly the feeling in the car lifted. “It’s going to be okay,” Hotch said as he turned around.

She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat and took a deep breath. It was the first one she’d taken in days. “I-I believe you.”


End file.
